Q & A
by Luthienne
Summary: MI6's new quartermaster is unsettled by his new secretary. Set during Skyfall. Q/OC.
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: I do not own James Bond.

**Q & A**

**A **_**Skyfall**_** Fanfiction Adventure**

**Chapter 1**

Before Q had even finished his first mug of Earl Grey, his new secretary appeared at his side with another one. He looked up from his computer, his fingers still tapping away. "That's…kind," he said, "but I like my tea—"

"With a tablespoon of honey and a splash of milk," said the secretary. She put the second mug down on his desk, her navy blue fingernails tapping against the ceramic.

Q stopped typing. "How did you know that?"

"I would be a very poor employee of MI6 if I couldn't figure out my superiors' tea preferences, sir," she said. Was that a hint of condescension he detected in her voice?

"I'm sorry," he said after a brief but uncomfortable silence, "but I don't think I've been told your name." His eyes took in her retro dress, her crimson lipstick, her Japanese features. She looked to be about twenty-four.

"The last Q always called me A," she said. "Q and A, as in 'question and answer.' He thought he was very funny." Her smile didn't reach her eyes.

"Well, then, A," he said, "thank you for the tea. I'll alert you if I need anything else."

"Of course, sir," she said, and left.

Were all MI6 secretaries so…unsettling? Q had never had a secretary before. M had promoted him straight from "information specialist"—the official term for "hacker"—to "quartermaster" after the attack on the old MI6 building had killed the previous Q. He had Gareth Mallory's recommendation to thank for his rapid rise in the ranks.

He had been surprised but excited when M approached him about heading Q Branch. However, his first day on the job was turning out to be markedly different than he had expected it to be.

The biggest problem was that he felt like all of his operatives resented him. At twenty-six, he was one of the youngest members of the division. He had plenty of experience, but everyone seemed to overlook that because of his age.

And then there was the matter of A. Thinking back on their interaction, he realized that that cup of tea might not have been a gesture of kindness at all. How _did_ she figure out how he liked it? He always made it himself, usually at home. His neck prickled at the idea of people watching him wander about his flat in his pajamas. He didn't like his personal life mixing with his work life.

With that cup of tea, A most likely intended to show him who really had the power in Q Branch. A brief search of MI6 files told him that she had been the previous Q's secretary for three years—straight out of university. That little fact testified to her extreme intelligence and competence, _and_ she had more experience in a high position than he did. If she didn't like him, he suspected that his job could prove to be very difficult indeed.

Somehow, he would have to prove to all of them that he deserved his new title.


	2. Chapter 2

**Q & A**

**A **_**Skyfall**_** Fanfiction Adventure**

**Chapter 2**

It had only been a week since the new quartermaster had stepped up, and yet, to A, it felt like an eon. She didn't know what she had done to offend Q, but offend him she clearly had. He said everything—instructions for investigations, requests for supplies, thanks for his morning mug of tea—in such a cool, brusque manner. She hadn't appreciated how overly friendly the previous Q had been with her, but she didn't like this opposite extreme either.

"A?" he called across the office. "I need you."

And that was the problem. Not, "Can you come here?" or, "I want you to take a look at this," just a short, "I need you." A sighed and composed herself before heading over to his desk.

"Locate the fingerprints of Agent 007," he instructed, not even bothering to look up from his monitor. Not for the first time, she noticed that he typed almost impossibly fast. "The current ones, if you please."

Was that the first time he had said "please?" She couldn't remember him ever saying it before.

"Of course, sir," she said. "Shall I print them or send you the file?"

"Send."

She returned to her own desk and got to work. He always gave her such menial tasks. He could have looked up these fingerprints himself in a matter of seconds! Why trouble her to do it for him?

But she knew the answer: he wanted to keep her in her place. She could do so much more if he would only let her! She wanted him to give her a difficult assignment, one that would require her to actually think. She had handled such things before. She wouldn't let him down.

With a click, she emailed Q the file. A few minutes later, he caught her eye across the few feet separating them. "Thank you," he said with the tiniest of smiles.

Well, it was a start.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you to everyone who favorited or followed this story! Special thanks to Rainiboui, savyleec, AliceLiddell12, Agent007Tomato, Zoey, steel-alchemist, jolyr, and Giulia for their reviews!


	3. Chapter 3

**Q & A**

**A **_**Skyfall**_** Fanfiction Adventure**

**Chapter 3**

"These are the designs we've come up with so far," said Q. "We're trying to keep them simple, but effective."

Gareth Mallory, examining the sparse array of gadgets arranged on the small table, did not seem impressed. "You've achieved simplicity, at the very least."

Q sighed. He hoped that Mallory, of all people, would appreciate the importance of change. Some of the devices his predecessors had sent into the field were not only ridiculous, but also utterly ineffectual in aiding the agents. He could produce much more complicated weapons and tools, but that wasn't what this part of his job required.

"What's that on the gun?" Mallory asked, pointing to the unusual-looking trigger.

"Fingerprint recognition," said Q. He picked the gun up to demonstrate. "Since I am not Bond, the gun will not allow me to shoot." He adjusted his grip and waited for the buzz and red light that signaled the lack of recognition, but it didn't come. He frowned. Of course this would happen.

Mallory snorted.

Q knew his design was correct—perhaps he had put in an old or faulty light. He aimed at the floor between him and his supervisor and was about to pull the trigger when his secretary practically barreled into him.

"No! Don't shoot!" A grabbed his arm and wrested the gun from his grip with alarming speed.

Q could only stare at her in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"This is an earlier design," she said. Her almond-shaped eyes were wide, and she panted slightly between words. "It's configured to accept your fingerprint, sir, not Bond's."

Mallory raised an eyebrow. "I'll let you work this out. Call me when you can label your products correctly." He turned and left the room.

Q ran a hand through his unruly hair. He hated to show anger in front of people, preferring to wait until he was in the privacy of his apartment to mutter curses and make himself an Earl Grey martini.

A, however, did not seem to have any such inhibitions. She stomped a stiletto-clad foot, red spots of rage appearing on her tan cheeks. "You need to be more careful! You could be accused of trying to injure, or worse, assassinate Mallory! You heard what he said! Why don't you have labels on these things?"

Her anger caught him off guard. He had never heard her speak above a carefully-controlled medium. "Isn't that your department?" he asked coolly.

"It's supposed to be!" she said. "But you wouldn't let me near the designs! Did you think I was going to mix them up? Now that you've taken care of that, am I allowed to work in here?"

Q felt his ears redden. "Yes," he said. Keep the words simple. No need to provoke her further.

And besides, said the small voice in the back of his mind, she was right.

An ominous silence hung in the air as A formulated an answer. "I'm not here to antagonize you, you know," she said, her voice dropping to its usual volume. "I'm here to do my job."

He had only been trying to maintain his superior position, not keep her from having one. He was usually so competent at office politics—why couldn't he manage her?

Before she left the room, a question that he had been meaning to ask for a while slipped out before he could stop it. "What does the 'A' really stand for?"

"Abrasive," said A. She slammed the door behind her.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you to everyone who favorited or followed this story! Special thanks to Giulia, PirateGyrl, Agent007Tomato, Blairx6661, KandeeReads, and Bond for their reviews!


	4. Chapter 4

**Q & A**

**A **_**Skyfall**_** Fanfiction Adventure**

**Chapter 4**

When A arrived at work one morning, she found a mug of coffee already on her desk. Had she forgotten to clean up the day before? She could have sworn she had washed and put away her mug before she left.

She picked it up, intending to take care of it before she forgot again, only to discover that it was warm. Hesitantly, she sipped at it. It was not only fresh, but also made to her liking: skim milk and two sugars.

Q entered the office. Why was he so early? "Oh, you're here," he said. "I thought I'd get you your coffee this morning, since you're forever bringing me tea."

"Thank you, sir," she said. "You didn't have to."

He ambled over to stand beside her desk, adjusting his cardigan with long fingers. "Well," he said.

Of course there was a "well."

A took another sip of her coffee. "Yes?"

He hesitated a moment before speaking. "I would like your opinion on a program I just completed. If you have a moment, would you mind stopping by my desk and taking a look?"

A's brows drew together. That statement hadn't been at all what she had expected, and she supposed that it was as much of an apology as she was going to get. "Of course, sir," she said. "I'll look at it right away."

She appreciated the gesture, however bittersweet. She had known people like Q before—brilliant people that had no time for anyone they considered inferior. Their opinions were the only ones that mattered in the end, no matter how much they tried to appear conciliatory and accommodating.

She wondered how long Q would keep up this change in attitude before he reverted to his old ways. It would be nice while it lasted, at least.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you to everyone who favorited or followed this story! Special thanks to Agent007Tomato, Pirate Gyrl, StormField, Blairx6661, BlackOphelia, timtom, and KUHYOOT for their reviews!


	5. Chapter 5

**Q & A**

**A **_**Skyfall**_** Fanfiction Adventure**

**Chapter 5**

Q sensed a change around the office. His operatives chatted amongst themselves as they worked; they nodded their heads when he passed. He supposed that they had sensed the truce, however shaky, between their boss and their representative.

A _was_ their representative, no doubt about it. When he had first ascended to his post, he thought that his people resented him because of his age. Then why, he thought, did they accept A? She was younger than him—the youngest in the branch, in fact.

For days afterward he had mentally replayed the moment that A snapped at him. He wasn't shaken so much by his accidental assassination attempt as he was by the force of her anger and the correctness of her assessment of him.

That's what it was, he realized. His people saw him as a jumped-up, snot-nosed techie and his secretary as the office darling. They couldn't surmount the brick wall of his arrogance; they couldn't help but support A because of her attentiveness and efficiency.

He sighed.

Just at that moment, A approached his desk, a silver laptop in her slender arms. "This is Silva's," she said. "I took the liberty of reviewing it and it's too complicated for me to decrypt."

Ah, Silva. The rogue agent. "Let me see it," Q said. He didn't like that A had looked at it first—but she was allowed to do so, of course.

He projected and enlarged the contents of the laptop for easier analysis and got to work. His mind ran through the codes as fingers ran across the keys, and adrenaline surged through him like lightning through a rod. _This_ is why he had been promoted. _This_ is what he was supposed to do.

But wait—

An alarm sounded. At first, Q thought it was in his mind, but when the rest of his operatives stirred he realized that it was real.

He had fallen into a trap. With a flick of his fingers, he had allowed Silva's program to access the MI6 system and free him from the high-security ward.

This wasn't happening.

This wasn't happening!

He turned at once to A, standing a few feet away at her desk. "Track him."

She nodded. "Of course, sir."

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story despite my extremely slow updates. Special thanks to therealbakers, Deranged Otaku Fangirl, LilyLunaPotter142, Kaoru241, Josephine NSW, InfinityLessThree, Nectar-Ambrosia, Pirate Gyrl, and The Ginger Midget for their reviews!


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